Tag Archives: corvette

Are there no design themes left? Aside from the rear end of the Ferrari F12 looking like a uterus, it pains me to see 3 sports cars, all in red, sitting on the floor of the Detroit Auto Show as we speak with front-end designs plagiarized and derived from each other. There are other headlight designs and front end treatments!!!!!!!! FIND A DIFFERENT ONE! How repulsive…

Well i gotta give it to Audi, not just because they are my favourite car company, but because they are the only company I can think of who are currently designing cars which will look classic in 10, 20, or 30 years from now (pardon me Alfa Romeo, but you’re kinda losing it). They are the only company I can think of who have attention to detail. The evidence for this is in the brand new Audi A7 introduced this past week in Germany. The rear end of the new A7 has been getting under my skin since the introduction….and now i know why.

The back end flows inwards, going back towards the body. Sure there is a bumper, however this inward flow hasn’t been used in many modern cars….until now. They have brought back the inward flow of the rear end! I know Alfa Romeo have used this ‘inward flow’ (as i refer to it) in their 8c Competizione, however it was a bit overdone with the weird round tail light, but i’m not complaining! The 8c was a stunningly designed car. I think Corvettes and special edition cars like the Ford GT also used this, but when have you recently seen it on a production sedan? i can’t remember any car in the last 10 or 20 years with this….production sedan, shall is say.

Alfa Romeo has a long history of sports cars with this inward flow, I generally recollect one of my favourite Alfa Romeos, the superb Montreal:

Audi claims their inspiration for the new style rear-end comes from them analyzing the 1970s Audi 100 Coupes and i can definitely see what they were looking at…..in fact, i think this new car has more similarity to that design than any other current Audi.

Apparently, this was a very conscious effort to consider ‘older’ designs when designing the A7. Check out this drawing that Audi issued to the press about the influences of the A7 design.

It seems though, that Lamborghini has been flirting with this idea for a while! Well at least in concept form. Check out the Lamborghini Estoque Concept and the Lamborghini Miura Concept from the past several years. Same indented inward flow rear end. Lamborghini, however, is a company essentially operated by Audi, so this isn’t surprising at all….

So what do you guys think about this? will this set a trend and bring this design sense back into the currently lackluster japanese & korean-influenced automotive design world? Can Audi influence other car makers to bring something new & old back into design? Alfa Romeo from a few years ago (2000-2007) really influenced alot of automotive design, however it didn’t last…..but I feel that Audi has already caused all these companies to use “big grilles”….can they get the rest of the industry to throw a bit of retro in the game? I hope so.

It’s an exciting time for SAAB in IEDEI’s opinion. They get a fresh start, under a native Swedish company, with alot of press in the last 6-12 months and only one way to go: UP.

The CEO of SAAB-SPYKER has been hinting that the Saab Aero X Concept (2006) could get built, even saying “it deserves to be built”. Motor Authority are reporting there may be an increasing chance it does get based, possibly on the existing Spyker Aileron platform. As a concept, it was definitely a stunning example of SAAB design….and what better way to relaunch the company than to make a statement.

For ages, Corvette fanboys have been singing the praises of Lingenfelter Vettes and how they can tear up supercars for breakfast, but obviously even Lingenfelter has grown so bored and tired of Corvettes that they have decided on new project. They have turned to making tacky looking body kits for the new Chevy Camaro. The car is now making 650+hp, up from the stock 430hp or so in the Camaro SS. But holy wow, it looks ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! Advice to Lingenfelter; go back to working on Corvettes and stop trying to built body kids, because you suck at it!

The Cadillac XLR is probably the worst example of Cadillac trying to build its own Corvette…it’s merely an overpriced, overstyled, old-man example of a Corvette. I’m not sure why ANYONE would buy one.

Back in 1955, Cadillac had a go at reviving the “La Salle” nameplate that they had stopped producing back in 1941. What they came up with were 2 models, a sedan and a roadster. The roadster is very interesting, a low slung, strangely designed, overly complex, italian-looking design with some pretty cool design features. It looks about the size of an original Corvette, and even has some similar proportions—however i think it actually looked much cooler than those early Corvettes. Harley Earl was in charge of this project as well….and its destiny was solely confined to the concept car wasteland!

This car was sent to the junkyard to be destroyed…..but apparently a man in Michigan FOUND the car there, and has plans to restore it.

Like this:

The most famous italian car driven with american balls was the DeTomaso Pantera (imo), however this must be one of the most beautiful; the Iso Grifo. Produced between 1963 and 1974, and under the beautiful shell lies a heart of pure american muscle. Corvette V8s ranging from 300 to 350hp. This is as beautiful as any Maserati or Ferrari of the 60s or 70s, in my opinion—and was fast as hell as well. In the 70s, the top speed of this badass was documented as 171 mph.

They’re rare as hell now, and are starting to fetch more and more money…but that won’t stop me from posting a few choice photos of the car i’m talking about now will it!

Like this:

Well, so all these rumours around about how a C7 Corvette is gonna be mid-engined (if GM even survives their current downfall!), but hey Chevy already tried some concepts with that! This 1968 Chevrolet Astro II XP-880 (not to be confused with the morbid Chevy Astro van of the 80s/90s) is amazing in pretty much every way. It’s got a gorgeous body, hinting at some of the 70s Corvettes—but far overreaching them in nearly every respect. This is the Corvette Chevrolet SHOULD have built….but never did sadly. It looks inspired by the Miura and Ford GTs of the 60s, but has its own character….another one lost in the archives of the wasteland.